Porcelain Veneers: Functioning Principle, Medical Indications, Bonding Process, Advantages, and Disadvantages

Millions of patients all over the world turn to restoration or cosmetic dentistry in hope of improving their teeth look. And more and more of them tend to choose porcelain veneers as a guaranteed way of achieving both ultra-white and natural smile. But do these dental appliances provide you with the results you actually expect to achieve? To discover this, let's learn more about porcelain veneers!

What is Porcelain Veneers Functioning Principle?

Porcelain veneers are thin covers of tooth-colored dental porcelain, placed right over a tooth front surface, either to improve its visual appearance, or to protect it, if it has been damaged. Consider that porcelain veneers are also often called dental porcelain laminates or just dental veneers.

First, the porcelain veneer gets individually designed and fabricated by a dental technician in the specialized laboratory, and only after that your dentist or orthodontist bonds it to your tooth, using dental cement. It is almost unbelievable, but porcelain veneers can not only to improve your tooth color, but also change its length, shape, or size. Let's learn together, what dental problems they can help to fix!

When Can Porcelain Veneers Help Me?

Porcelain veneers are really widely used to fix the wide range of dental and orthodontic traumas and disorders. First of all, they are used to restore the fractured, broken, or worn out teeth. Secondly, these dental veneers are also used to manage such orthodontic problems as misaligned, crowded, gapped, irregularly shaped, or uneven teeth. The most complex use of them is required to treat a bad bite disorder.

And the last but not the least, the porcelain veneers are bonded to return the discolored teeth their natural color. Teeth get discolored in the result of their death, e.g. due to root canal treatment. They often get spotted due to some medications intake. In very rare cases, porcelain veneers are applied to whiten even absolutely healthy teeth, but this is not quite justified in medical point of view.

How do Porcelain Veneers Get Bond to My Teeth?

Porcelain veneers bonding process gets fulfilled in three stages. The first one is diagnosis, which is, basically, consultation with your dentist, during which he comes up with your treatment plan.

The second stage includes preparation. During this stage, your dentist will make a dental model or cast of your tooth, which he will hand to a dental technician, who will design and fabricate the individual veneer for you. Your dentist will receive it in 1 or 2 weeks. After that he will remove near 0.5 millimeter of your tooth enamel to prepare it to the porcelain veneer bounding.

The third stage is the actual porcelain veneers bonding process. First of all, you dentist will place the veneer on your tooth and trim it to achieve the perfect fit. Then he will clean, polish, and etch you tooth. After that, your dentist will adjust the porcelain veneer to your tooth with small quantity of dental cement. And finally, he will remove the excess cement and make the cosmetic adjustments. After that, you will get the recovery period recommendations and the follow-up appointments schedule.

The porcelain veneers will serve you well between 5 and 10 years. After that period of time they have to be replaced by the new ones.

What are Porcelain Veneers Advantages?

At the face of it, porcelain veneers seem to be overwhelmed of advantages. First of all, they provide a natural appearance to your teeth and beauty to your smile; they can make the dark teeth appear considerably whiter. Apart from that, dental porcelain is hypo allergic product, which is well tolerated by your gums tissues. Consider that the veneers always stay clean, as they are stain-resistant. And finally, porcelain veneer placement does not require the major tooth shaping, as the dental crown adjustment does.

What are Porcelain Veneers Disadvantages?

However, you should thoroughly weigh all pros and contras, as the porcelain veneers placement is the irreversible and highly expensive process. What is more, the veneers do not always fully match the color of your natural teeth. Also they cannot be repaired in the case of dislodge, fall off, or damage.

Also keep in mind that the porcelain veneers placement requires the partial removal of your tooth enamel, which makes it more sensitive to hot and cold foods and drinks. Apart from that, porcelain veneers are not indicated for patients with poor dental health and weakened teeth, as well as for those, acquiring the habit of clenching or grinding their teeth.